Our Founders

Ophelia Dahl

Ophelia Dahl co-founded Partners In Health, which began in Haiti’s rural Central Plateau more than 30 years ago and now serves millions of patients in 11 countries around the world. PIH’s community-based model has helped to redefine what’s possible in health care delivery in settings of poverty, proving that diseases that stalk the poor can be effectively treated. Dahl led PIH as executive director for 16 years and now chairs its Board of Directors.

Paul Farmer

Dr. Paul Farmer, physician and anthropologist, was chief strategist and co-founder of Partners In Health, Kolokotrones University Professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He also served as U.N. Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. Dr. Farmer has written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality. His most recent books are In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction, and To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation. He died in Rwanda on February 21, 2022.

Jim Yong Kim

Dr. Jim Yong Kim is Vice Chairman and Partner at Global Infrastructure Partners. Kim co-founded PIH, where he developed treatment programs for MDR-TB and AIDS in Haiti, Peru, and several other countries. From 2003 to 2005, Kim served as Director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department. In 2009, he was named the 17th President of Dartmouth College. Pres. Barack Obama nominated Kim to become the 12th President of the World Bank Group, a position he held from July 2012 to February 2019.

Todd McCormack

Todd McCormack is a co-founder of Partners In Health and has supported his friend, Paul Farmer, since they first met at Duke University in 1978. He serves on the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors, focusing the majority of his time stewarding and collaborating with fellow Trustees to bring new resources to support PIH’s mission. McCormack is a Senior Corporate Vice President at IMG.

Tom White

Tom White enabled Partners In Health to do “whatever it takes” to improve the lives and health of patients in vulnerable communities around the world. The owner and president of construction company J.F. White Contracting Co., he helped found PIH with his first $1 million donation and then systematically gave away his wealth by selling his company, his assets, and his house to continue supporting PIH. He died peacefully in Boston on Jan. 7, 2011.

Discover how PIH started

More than 30 years ago, a movement began that would change global health forever with the co-founding of Partners In Health.

'Bending the Arc' tells the story.